Salon.com > Erick Erickson

Conservative activists to GOP lawmakers: You are being tested

Wed, 12 Dec 2012 23:02:00 +0000

A group of big right-wing activists wrote an open letter to House and Senate Republicans, telling them they are "entering into a period of testing," wherein their conservative principles will be challenged and "the whole leftist apparatus is gearing up to panic you and to force you to cave in. Don’t do it."

The letter, posted by conservative columnist Morton Blackwell on RedState.com, urges lawmakers to be strong against the liberals' "current power grabs."

"If Republicans cave in now, when it really counts, next time you will be weaker, because your conservative base will be outraged," the letter says. "Many who worked hard to elect you in the past will never lift a finger for you again."

The letter concludes:

So it’s in the interest of the country and in your personal interest for you to use the power you unquestionably have now to stand firm and not surrender your conservative principles, no matter how loud the clamor of people whose central interest is to advance the left’s agenda.

The right turns on Boehner after committee “purge”

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 14:02:00 +0000

The right is outraged with House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, for "purging" four conservatives from their prime committee posts because they bucked party leadership in key votes.

Reps. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kan., and Justin Amash, R-Mich., lost their positions on the House Budget Committee for the next session. And Walter Jones, R-N.C., and David Schweikert, R-Ariz., were booted from the House Financial Services Committee.

From the AP:

All four lawmakers had voted against the summer 2011 deal negotiated between Republican leaders and President Barack Obama for extending the government’s ability to borrow money in exchange for $1 trillion in spending cuts and the promise of another $1 trillion in reduced deficits. Three of the four, the exception being Schweikert, voted against the Ryan-written GOP budget blueprint that the House passed last March.

Erick Erickson will not run for Senate after all

Fri, 30 Nov 2012 17:00:00 +0000

CNN contributor and RedState blogger Erick Erickson thought a lot about it, and decided not to challenge Saxby Chambliss in 2014.

“Were I to run for the Senate, it would be a terribly nasty campaign,” Erickson wrote on RedState. “I’m not putting my family through that when the best outcome would mean a sizable pay cut in pay and being away from my kids and wife all the time huddled in a pit of vipers often surrounded by too many who viewed me as a useful instrument to their own advancement.”

Chambliss has of late been targeted by conservatives because he recently backed away from his support for Grover Norquist's tax pledge. Herman Cain has also been floated as a potential Chambliss challenger, though he told the Daily Caller that it's not likely: “My attention will be on exposing the economic pain and suffering to come from a second Obama term, [rather] than on a decision Senator Chambliss made,” Cain said. “No, I’m not running!”

Erickson, for his part, insisted that his brief consideration of a run was not "just some effort of self promotion," but a response to "the efforts of several and the financial pledges of support."

Erick Erickson mulling a challenge to Saxby Chambliss

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 16:02:00 +0000

Erick Erickson, the conservative activist and CNN contributor, says he is giving serious thought to challenging Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., in the 2014 primary.

"I had been rather dismissive of it, but in the past two days have been approached by several organizations and individuals I greatly respect who have asked me to really consider it," Erickson said, according to CNN. "I owe them that and will consider it, but am not prepared to commit to it. I have plenty of time to think about it."

Chambliss has become a recent target of conservatives for backing away from Grover Norquist's anti-tax pledge.

"Whether it is me or someone else, conservatives should make beating Saxby Chambliss their chief cause in primary season 2014," Erickson said.

Erick Erickson defends Rubio

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 22:15:00 +0000

RedState blogger and CNN contributor Erick Erickson defended Marco Rubio, who has been slammed for dipping a toe into creationism this week.

From RedState:

Marco Rubio is getting beaten up by the press for not decisively and convincingly saying he thinks the world is billions of years old. It has become the new litmus test in the media. Believing what was believed to be literally true for a few thousand years is now nutty. Christian homeschool kids, often taught that the world is not as old as some believe and who routinely kick the rear ends of the ivy prep kids in academics, are considered stupid.

Truth be told, I think the world is billions of years old, but I have no doubt God created it.

But, Erickson continued:

Conservative pundit: “I don’t think much of Obama’s “us”

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 16:25:00 +0000

In Republicans’ first writings about last night’s defeat there was bitterness, doomsaying, defiance and contempt, sure, but also hints at how the party needs to reform if it’s going to compete in 21stcentury America:

Ben Shapiro, Breitbart.com

With Mitt Romney’s projected defeat in the presidential race tonight, Americans are very clearly divided into two camps.

The first camp is those who want a country of unending bailouts, of free giveaways, of government-provided goods and services – a camp of Americans who want to forfeit the future to guarantee ease and comfort in the present. The second camp is those who understand that that world is unsustainable, who recognize that freedom is the only guarantor of the present and the future.

Jennifer Rubin, Washington Post

Quote of the day: “Not winning”

Mon, 17 Sep 2012 22:51:00 +0000

Conservative blogger Erick Erickson wrote a column Monday, called "If The Election Were Held Today Barack Obama Would Win." It's pretty self-explanatory:

"Contra Dick Morris, Mitt Romney is not winning this election. At least Mitt Romney is not winning the election right now. Conservatives are obsessing over every poll, the turn out models used, and the media bias that is on ful display. Yes, some of the polling models seem screwy, though we all forget the pollsters apply a secret sauce known only to them on top. Yes, reporters are fully beclowning themselves to get their god-king re-elected. But while we may be focused there, the fact is the Romney campaign isn’t functioning well. Lucky for you and me the election is not today. But something needs to happen in Boston and I am less and less hopeful anything will happen."

In response, Romney campaign adviser Bay Buchanan dismissed Erickson's post, saying on MSNBC that "Erick Erickson has never been with us ... This is Governor Romney's campaign and he is running it and it is his message."

Erickson responded to Buchanan in a tweet:

[embedtweet id="247689368725241856"]

Petition for CNN to fire Erick Erickson gets more than 100k signatures

Fri, 07 Sep 2012 21:12:00 +0000

Could this be the final straw for Erick "David Souter is a "goat-f*cker" Erickson?

Erickson, who's both a CNN contributor and blogger for the conservative website Red State, is being targeted by a women's advocacy group after he tweeted this about the female speakers during day one of the DNC:

First night of the Vagina Monologues in Charlotte going as expected.

— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) September 5, 2012

He tweeted an apology shortly after:

My apologies to those offended by my tweet.Wasn't my intention.

— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) September 5, 2012

But that wasn't enough for the women's advocacy group UltraViolet, which shortly after launched a petition to get him yanked off of CNN. "Seriously?" the petition asks. "He hears powerful, eloquent women talking about crucial issues and that's his reaction? Perhaps it shouldn't be that surprising, given his history of insulting women." It then noted how Erickson defended Rush Limbaugh's attack on Sandra Fluke.

6. Erick Erickson

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 16:00:00 +0000

Erick Erickson is a generic right-wing blogger whose only notable quality as a commentator is his cowardly unwillingness to stand behind the various vitriolic things he says and writes. He's not a good writer or interesting thinker or particularly funny or savvy. His idea of a good gag is calling David Souter a "goat-fucking child molester" and then deleting that tweet and then hastily rewriting it when he got called on it and then crying to Howard Kurtz that he regretted ever writing it.

Even the many vile and stupid things he says are repetitive and predictable. He's called Barack Obama a Nazi on multiple occasions, for crimes like "criticizing the insurance industry" and "wanting to host the Olympics." Who can forget the time he idly wondered when citizens would "march down to their state legislator's house, pull him outside, and beat him to a bloody pulp" over a Washington state proposal to regulate phosphates in dishwasher detergent? That's quality political analysis right there! No wonder CNN hired him!

RedState blogger has amazing Herman Cain theory

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 17:20:00 +0000

In the midst of an otherwise routine post celebrating Ohio voters' decision to symbolically demonstrate their disapproval of a healthcare reform rule that has yet to go into effect and bemoaning the media's conspiracy of silence on said decision, RedState diarist Dan Perrin makes this totally sane and reasonable observation:

So, this morning, were the lead stories on television that Nancy Pelosi, whose belittling and famous “Are you serious? Are you serious?” response to being asked about the challenge to the ObamaCare individual mandate, was the perfect illustration of her radical and out-of-touch mental state — and that she is as out of touch as former President Bush was when he expressed amazement at grocery store price scanners?

Uh, no. (The media’s obsession with the Penn State sex scandal can be explained by the fact they think it will hurt Herman Cain.)

Emphasis very much mine, because, wow.

The tragic, hilarious “We Are the 53 percent” movement

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 16:22:00 +0000

The conservative response to the "We are the 99 percent" movement is ... hilarious. (And, sure, heartbreaking.) Conservative filmmaker Mike Wilson and vacuous right-blogger Erick Erickson joined forces to start "We Are the 53%," a blog made up of contributions from the 53 percent of Americans who pay more in federal income taxes than they receive back in deductions or credits.

The project was kicked off by Erick Erickson, who announced that he works "three jobs," by which he means being a professional television pundit, radio pundit and Internet pundit. There is a stunning amount of cognitive dissonance, misplaced resentment and class revulsion going on, even for a conservative Web project.